


Important

by youcanTry



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Caffeine addiction implied, Compartmentalization, Depression, Gen, Super Angsty Tim Drake, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Tim Drake-centric, Tim has it, Tim's crippling self-esteem issues, unedited we die like robisn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-09 06:27:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18911407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcanTry/pseuds/youcanTry
Summary: Timothy Drake-Wayne is important. Mr. Wayne was the CEO of a billion dollar company, perfectly composed, always ready with a smile for the cameras.Red Robin is important. People depended on the vigilante, to put criminals behind bars and to keep Gotham safe.Tim, though? Not so much.





	Important

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who's back at it again with depressing Tim Drake feels!!!

Tim’s not doing so well. He knows this, and yet he can’t make himself do anything about it. After all, Tim’s not important. 

 

Timothy Drake-Wayne is important. Mr. Wayne was the CEO of a billion dollar company, perfectly composed, always ready with a smile for the cameras. 

 

Red Robin is important. People depended on the vigilante, to put criminals behind bars and to keep Gotham safe.

 

Tim, though? Not so much. So the boy picks himself up off his desk(the bed in the corner was going dusty), and drinks enough coffee to both keep himself awake and potentially overdose, but Tim’s long past caring. 

 

Then he takes out the suit and briefcase that hide his thin form, makeup that covers bruises and scars(and if he has to use a little more to cover the bags under his eyes, no one’s there to notice), and turns into Timothy, adopting a sharp smile and blank eyes. 

 

He drives to WE in an expensive sports car he’s forgotten the name of, and prays that the seventeen-year-old highschool dropout doesn’t run it to the ground.

 

When Timothy finally makes it back to his apartment, he walks inside, shedding his suit and tie, taking in a gaunt face as he looks up in the mirror. He drinks some more coffee, because he doesn’t really have anything else going for him right now, and lets Tim come to the surface. The Tim that’s a workaholic and would rather run himself to the ground than disappoint someone. So he does, and it’s the only time he feels like himself, as he sifts through mountains of words and numbers, data and code, pulling out clues and stringing them together till a picture has formed. _Detective_.

 

Night falls, and so does Tim, letting Red Robin come and take his place, slipping on gauntlets to hide the quivering of his pale hands, lets a mask again obscure his face and grins, this time not to please and placate, but to strike fear as he grapples over a city known for its crime. Red Robin does not get anxious, or nervous, or sad. Red Robin knows how to take down an army of twenty League trained ninjas at once, and does not express pain because of a knife to the abdomen(not like he doesn’t have enough scars, anyway). 

 

Then he catches the sight of a man he used to wish for as a father, and another young boy with an _R_ on his chest. And he feels Red Robin start to crack, and Tim tries and push through the cracks because _I haven’t seen you in so long._

 

But he’s spent too long perfecting his mask, even when the child hisses words that twist at his heart and the man only asks him to cover one of his cases for him. Then they’re gone, and RR _pushes_ at Tim, punishes him because _he is weak._ Too weak for Batman, too weak for Robin. Tim was useless, unnecessary, and so he disappeared from the vigilante’s watering eyes, to be replaced by polar blue.

 

The night is once again graced by the sound of knuckles connecting with flesh, and kicks landing with the sound of cracking bone. Then the bell tolls and Tim becomes tired, so Red Robin says goodnight to Gotham. Once he gets home, he carefully stitches up cuts and treats wounds, because Red Robin is nothing if not careful.

 

 Once he’s finished, he goes and makes himself another pot of coffee(he still needs to replenish his stock of caffeine tablets), and lets Tim finally push through the mask, letting exhaustion dance across his face as he finishes reports, ties up a couple of cases, reads through business proposals, drafts his speech for a board meeting, and tries his best not to let his mind wander.

 

Only after the sun’s rays begin to light up the smog in the sky, does Tim think to sleep. So he gets up, humoring himself, pops a couple of sleeping pills and goes to bed. Tim knows, though, what’s waiting for him behind closed eyes, and so he listens to his breath even out, wondering what kind of nightmare would wake him up this time.  


**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to go write some Batfam fluff to try and balance out my angst levels now


End file.
